Is there anything you already dislike on the 7.2 PTR?

I haven’t exactly hidden my feelings when it comes to the upcoming Paragon reputation system that patch 7.2 will bring. For the unaware, patch 7.2 is introducing “Paragon” reputation bars after you’ve reached exalted with a faction. These bars require 20,000 reputation to fill completely and reward a cache specific to that faction. After  you fill a bar once… you can do it again. And again. And again, ad infinitum. Oh, and don’t bother stocking up on reputation tokens right now, because those won’t work for Paragon reputation. It all needs to be done post-7.2.

In theory, this is meant to add a bonus for earning reputation beyond the cap — something you’re likely doing thanks to world quests. When I first heard about these, I was against them because I need to see my reputation bars all the way full. Having that full green bar soothes me. On top of that, I was worried that the cache rewards would either be so paltry they didn’t feel worth it, or they would feel too good and go from “nice bonus” to “something you should grind.”

Lo and behold, the latest update to the PTR added faction-specific mounts to each cache. You know that Storm Drake you’ve wanted to ride since the moment you saw one? You can get it now! But first, you need to hit exalted, grind out 20,000 more reputation, then pray to the Old Gods that RNG is on your side and the cache contains the mount — if not, rinse and repeat. Do this for each Legion faction until you have the mount you want… Good luck!

Suffice it to say, I hate this idea. Grinding to exalted for a mount is nothing new — but the joy is knowing when exactly it will be over and the reward yours. Yes, compared to now, it’s nice to have a bonus for something you’ll likely be doing anyway. But for mount collectors (and folks who live to fill up that green bar once and for all), this is RNG on top of a reputation grind on top of another reputation grind. Would that I could use expletives here, because this is one aspect of 7.2 that I’m completely and utterly against — and I didn’t even get to talk about the 150 million AP pet collectors will have to grind per spec and on specific classes if they want to catch ’em all.

So yeah, 7.2 has a lot of really cool stuff. But it seems to be doubling down on reputation and Artifact Power grinds, which I view as a total negative. I’ve talked enough though — is there something about 7.2 you already hate?